c9 | New Year's 2004!

New Year's Eve 2004

or

Snow Tires? Chains? Ice? Bah, humbug!

or

"I'm going to die on New Year's Eve in the forest!"

Originally, the plan had been to have some sort of party on New Year's with several friends attending. That plan fell through, so Elyse decided to have a bunch of people up to her cottage in the Gatineau hills. Elyse (good friend of mine since high school), Jason (ditto, also Best Man), Dave (good friend in high school, lost touch the past few years, hopefully will get back in touch), Julie and Ally (high school friends who I see at parties every year but that's about it), Pete (good friend and wedding photographer, former roommate), and us, made up the guest list.

Challenge number one: getting to the cottage. I had driven there many times during high school and university, and knew the way. The problem is I hadn't been there in over five years, so I couldn't quite visualize every step of the drive. I felt quite sure I would recognize each turn I had to make, and not get lost or anything. We picked up Jason after work and headed out, with both of us at each exit on the highway saying "I'm preeeeeety sure that't not it. Yeah, ok, definitely not that one." Meanwhile, Vinny was just shaking his head. Stopped for McDonald's for Jason and Vinny, then continued on our way. Found the gate to the private road with no problems, and only a few iffy moments where I thought I had maybe gone too far. Elyse had instructed us to wait at the gate, so when we found no one there, and the gate open, we started to drive in a bit. Headlights appeared behind us almost immediately, so we stopped and I hopped out to find Elyse and everyone. As we started to drive in, I discovered that I had put us into a bit of an icy shoulder with snow bank, so the car only moved backwards regardless of my instructions. Fixed that after a couple annoying seconds, and then began the drive in.

The private road doesn't get much traffic, and doesn't get any attention, from the provincial road crews in la belle province, so even during high school there were very icy moments on this road. We proceeded slowly, expecting ice and possibly even getting stuck. I didn't say what I was thinking, and all the high school friends were thinking: one time, Elyse tried to get up a big icy hill and the car lost its grip and spun sideways so that she was sitting perpendicular to the road, with a 15-foot drop behind the car and a steep hill in front. That one was kinda tricky to get out of.

It's a very hilly road, so the driving consisted of slowly making our way down hills until we were safely around any curves, then accelerating a bit to provide inertia for the upcoming uphill section. Once we slowed too much and began to slip, so I had to reverse back to the bottom of the hill and then try again. We made it OK, but after the next rise I noticed that Elyse's headlights had stopped moving. I stopped and waited, and still nothing. Vinny was NOT impressed at the ice, and was overheard to say things like "whose fucking idea was this anyway?" Jason and I walked back to discover that Elyse was stuck on the infamous cliff hill, lodged in the snow halfway up and not moving. I had driven the car out of the jam last time, so the keys quickly found their way into my hand, and we tried to get out. A bit of shoving got me moving, backwards down the hill. I had everyone move off the road entirely, and then drove quickly up using the snowy shoulder to maintain grip. And it worked! Thank god. ("Yay Cam!") I wasn't worried about danger, just about the nuisance of having to walk all the way to the cottage, still a good kilometre away.

Elyse got back behind the wheel, and I took off running for our car, which had Vinny and Pete chatting away (I had said, while working on the stuck car, "would somebody please go visit Vinny? He's not enjoying his first visit to the cottage so far for some reason..."). We hopped in and got moving again, with no getting stuck until the last hill. Elyse's cottage, despite being 10m above lake level, has its driveway at 50m above lake level, and the road just before that point is at about 7m above lake level. It's also the least used portion of the private road, and had no grit or sanding done. I tried four times, and the car wouldn't get up the hill, so both cars parked at the bottom, off to the side, and we carried all the food, booze, wedding albums, etc to the cottage.

A few people dove right into preparing the food they'd brought for supper, a few others dove right into visiting, and I was instructed to build a fire. After that, I joined the socializers. We had yummy appetizers, delicious soup, with chicken, bread, and all the fixin's. Very tasty. Many toasts were made, and smiles all around.

After dinner, our wedding photos were displayed, and we relaxed a bit. Our original plan had been to leave at this point, so as to no get stuck if there was a storm, and also to get back to Scott's for his little shindig. But Vinny was having enough fun that Elyse and Pete convinced us to stay until midnight. I secretly worried that the roads were getting icier, but it was nice to visit for another couple hours so I pushed the thoughts from my mind.

Soon, hats were passed out, noisemakers appeared, and the New Year's Eve activities began. More and more drinks for some (not me, as we were driving back that night), and soon Pete decided to check in with his friends in Seattle, who were also heading out to party soon.

stargazen and I spoke briefly, over the roar of drunken Ontarians. it soon became clear that Pete was drunk-dialing everyone in Seattle, primarily to inform them that he was having more fun in Ottawa (well, near Cantley, Québec). At this point I removed the phone from his hands, and he didn't really seem to notice. :-)

Delicious molten chocolate cakes appeared, and they somehow managed to get onto several shirts. Elyse was having a hard time shaving the chocolate bar to decorate until I suggested a different approach, which worked better. Dave decided that I must be some sort of MacGyver (the car, the fire, the chocolate shavings). It was funny at the time. The New Year was celebrated for New Brunswick (not for the Atlantic Time Zone, though -- just for New Brunswick), small arguments were had over what time it really was, the countdown happened about 30 seconds early according to the radio, and noise noise noise noise noise. No surprises there.

Sadly, it was time to leave. Most were staying at the cottage overnight, but we had to hit the highway in the morning and needed to be back on snowplowed pavement (as opposed to icy, snow-covered dirt) before then. Many hugs, exchanged emails and websites, and then we headed for the car.

Remember that we were parked at the side of the road, at the bottom of a hill? It's a narrow one-lane road, so there was no room to turn around. I tried to turn around in someone's driveway (thank god it was a relatively level one, and not the 25° grade ones that seemed common). Very icy, so we started to slide and nearly got stuck only 13 feet from where we were originally parked. But somehow I turned the right way at the right time, and we got out. After that, I was very worried about the rest of the route, but it actually turned out to be better than six hours previous, and we got out with no further mishaps. Upon reaching clear pavement, we set ourselves to the task of driving back to Ottawa.

I had promised Elyse I would call the cottage and let them know that we were fine, so they wouldn't worry. I asked Vinny for his cell phone.

"Shit! It's in my bag, which is at the cottage!!"

So we turned around, drove back in, braved the icy roads (again, in better shape than before supper). I parked one hill back from the cottage, avoiding the last annoying section, and Vinny ran back. Jason peed, I turned the car around and shone the headlights at him, then I peed, then Vinny got back. Lather, rinse, repeat: we headed back out the icy road to the pavement, no problems, and headed back to Ottawa. Dropped Jason off, then went to Scott's. We had told him we would be there around 10:00 or 10:30. It was 02:30 when we got there. Oops! He was awake, and the party had been good, and all was good. We ate his leftover cake, then went to sleep.

Somehow, Vinny was awake only 2.5 hours later. Me, I relaxed and enjoyed a grand 5.5 hours of sleep. :)